For those of you playing the home game, this is the 29th appearance of a Spyro Gyra CD on this blog, so you can safely assume I'm a fan. There's less of leader Jay Beckenstein on this one so I guess you could call it more of a band album than their usual fare. The group went through a down cycle in the early half of the nineties and this album was part of their ascent back to their earlier standards. Just one problem: they seem to be doing everything in their power to sound like generic smooth jazz (see track 3 Westwood Moon - a cut that starts off like a Jeff Lorber tune). However, their plan was spoiled by the fact they can't help but sound like themselves. And even though some of the tunes come closer to "instrumental pop" than "smooth jazz" (i.e., Surrender), I think I might put this one in the top half of SG releases all time if I ever bothered to sit down and come up with such a ranking.
The first two cuts of this album would later appear on the 1998 live album, Road Scholars.
Peak on the US Billboard Top 200 chart: Did not chart
Peak on Billboard Contemporary Jazz Albums chart: #5
Tracks: My picks are the title track, Midnight (with a nice contribution from Randy Brecker), Playtime, Valentino's, and As We Sleep.
Personal Memory Associated with this CD: None. Believe it or not, this one wasn't on my shelves until late last year when I picked it up for $2 our of a clearance bin and for that, I'd like to thank all of you people currently glutting the market with your used CDs as you mistakenly shun and discard physical media products. Salut!
Previously revisited for the blog:
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